SEO or search engine optimization seems like a new digital marketing buzzword, but it’s actually been around for a while. Here’s everything you need to know.

What is search engine optimization?

When web users need specific information but they have no idea where they can find it, they use search engines. When search engines are asked to locate certain information, they provide the user with all possible results, containing certain words from the search term used. These are called “keywords”. Since the same information is offered by more than one website, search engines show a multitude of possible websites. So in that way all these websites compete for visibility to the search engines. The higher the visibility, quicker a website will be picked by the engine, leading to a higher likelihood of the user clicking it and using the website to find his required information. SEO helps websites increase their visibility to the search engines.

SEO Techniques

The two main categories of SEO techniques are termed as white hat and black hat SEO techniques. While white hat techniques are legal ones that are approved by search engines, black hat techniques are not legal and not approved of by the engines.

Benefits of SEO

Within SEO, websites employ different techniques with one main purpose: to attract more traffic to the website. The basic benefits include higher page rankings with search engines resulting in more visitors and eventually leading to more conversions of these visitors into customers. While page ranking is often the most cited one among SEO benefits, it is actually a means to an end, the end being more sales. We can see numerous SEO companies surfacing every other day, claiming to get you higher rankings with Google, converting visitors into customers and much more. As pretty as it may seem, it all boils down to an effort to attract more visitors and thus more business.